Tune into the live-streamed opening ceremony of the online-exhibition My Song for You, curated by Dr. Susanne Korbel and presented by the exil.arte Center at the University of Music and Performance Art in Vienna and the ACF New York.
Join this online event and explore the stage and film careers as well as musical legacy of Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura.

Their voices inspired masses and fascinated audiences about operas and operettas at a time when the genre had already been thought of being a thing of the past.

Following the 'Anschluss' with Nazi Germany in 1938, Marta Eggerth, a Hungarian-born soprano and Jan Kiepura, a Polish tenor, who came to fame in Vienna, their chosen new home, were forced to turn their backs on Austria. When they appeared in Paris in September 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War, they realized that a return to Vienna was out of the question. They moved to New York City, and shared a fate with countless other European artists, librettists, composers and musicians. Many went into exile, and many were also arrested, imprisoned and murdered.

The show not only explores the stage and film careers as well as musical legacy of Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura but also also captures the stories of around 100 of the couple's friends, companions and colleagues including Fritz Grünbaum, Emmerich Kálman, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Lotte Lehmann, Billy Wilder and many others.

The live-streamed opening ceremony will take place at University of Music and Performance in Vienna (mdw) at noon EDT on October 20, 2020. The ceremony will include welcome statements from Wolfgang Sobotka, the President of the Austrian Parliament, Ulrike Sych, the President of the University of Music and Performance in Vienna (mdw), Gerold Gruber, founder of exil.arte and head of the exil.arte Center of the mdw, as well as curator Susanne Korbel. They will be joined online in New York by ACFNY Director Michael Haider and Marjan Kiepura, Marta Eggerth's and Jan Kiepura's son, his wife Jane Knox-Kiepura, and the New York City based opera expert, Ken Benson. In Vienna, the world-famous tenor Ramón Vargas will give a special live performance dedicated to this occasion. The entire opening event will be in English.

Viewers interested in participating in this online event can watch this on the ACFNY YouTube channel link.

For more information regarding the exhibition, please visit exilarte.org/ausstellung/kiepura-and-eggerth.